Let us walk

Dear friends,

I'm not at Siren. I may not go. I've been reading. And at 3:00 PM, on the dot, I finished. I closed the book, went into the bedroom and flopped down next to the Monkey. "How was it?" he said. I stared back at him through salt-stained glasses. "It was exactly everything I had already guessed and riffed about in my head but still... It's different to read it and know for sure." "So you're done. It's over." A nod says yes. It is.

Late last night, morning really, tired, tipsy and armed with steely determination to box fake wizards if necessary*, my friend Jared and I** took the F train to Barnes and Noble in Brooklyn. We waited on an incredibly fast moving line for very little time. There were people of all ages, in and out of costumes, different races and class, some giddy, some sheepish; all waiting. On our way there we passed a deli where two white-clad workers talked about taking a break to go get it. In Spanish. Cars keep going past, some with people drive-by dissing and some triumphantly cackling, holding their big books up to the window. In either case, I can't believe I'm typing this, it could only be described as book taunting. If that were as rough as the world got, wouldn't life be grand?

Thank you lady with a baby in a Camden cafe writing in longhand all those years ago, it's been a swell ride.

This is a piece of music written by a man thinking about his English childhood and another little boy. I think it works here.

A Ceremony of Carols: Interlude/Sioned Williams (mp3)

Buy A Ceremony Of Carols - Britten Choral Works II by The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

Love, D

* Not really, but it was fun to imagine cartoonishly beating the bejeezus out of people holding broomsticks.

** And a half-dozing J but he wasn't really participating. It was our geek mission, not his.